I hear feet shuffling and the voices get louder as I walk into the hall. Everyone finding their clique. Which group will let me get close enough?

His smile fades as I look toward his group, his eyes narrowing before he turns away. She pulls her mana crystal close to her chest as I walk by, her lips pressed together like she's smelled something rotten. The group dressed like stoners is probably my best bet. Baggy clothes, greasy hair, and one kid with a faded Pink Floyd shirt who just looks away.

"Leech."

I hear it from the group of jocks, followed by a few laughs. The one who said it is leaning against the wall in a blue and gray varsity jacket, grinning as he elbows his friend. It's said under his breath, but I heard him. I always hear him. He's humiliated me for years, and today is no different. But I keep my head high.

I join the stoners near the old corridor. The drain is wet, like someone recently mopped the floor. But the rest of the floor is dry. Nobody wants to stand closest to it. They'll let me stay as long as I'm between them and the drain.

The corridor is a straight shot to the workshop, but today nobody is using it. Any change, even small ones spooks us. Nobody says anything.

The crowd starts walking.

1. Stay with the group until the workshop.

2. I've had enough of him. I'm taking the longer maintenance passage.

3. It's just a little water, and I might actually get a decent seat for once if I take the corridor.

Or start over.

They didn't even look before speeding off

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mwyv7hpge226

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The model said it looks like her! If she was just being kind or not, either way that's my happy place!

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mwhezotl622i

Makes me wonder what this means for Audi's F1 team? I read that it wasn't a slam dunk due to VW finances I think a year or so ago.

I better clear out that nest before it gets worse. Who knows what I could come back to tonight.

Unfortunately, it’s pretty high up there. I put my desk chair on the bed and slowly shift my weight onto it as I climb, my left arm pressed against the wall like Spider-Man trying to keep me balanced. Up close, the webbing doesn’t look like webbing at all. In my peripheral vision, the pulsing falls into the same three-angle pattern over and over, like it was built specifically to fit the corner.

I wobble and jab at it with a pen. It isn’t sticky like I expected. I work the point under the edge and pry.

The wall gives way instead of the web.

It crumbles like dry, day-old coffee cake.

A hole opens.

Fuck.

A mal comes through and I fall backward onto the bed with a thud. I zap it, burning precious mana I really can’t afford to spend. A second one crawls through. I’m still trying to get my feet under me when I zap that one too.

Then the hole gets bigger.

There are dozens.

Too many.

They’re all over me before I can scream. I’m grabbing, kicking, trying to throw them off, but every time I pull one away another takes its place.

My neck burns.

I touch it.

Blood.

So much blood.

Is that all mine?

They’re eating me.....

Start Over

My alarm goes off. And I ache.

I know I must have slept. This bed is supposed to be great, but no matter what I do, I hurt.

Opening my eyes, it takes a moment to orient myself. I’ve been here just over two and a half years and I’ve never gotten used to the sights, sounds, or smells of the Scholomance. A school with no teachers where I’d learn to use magic sounded great on paper. Had I known then what I know now, maybe I would have made different choices.

In the upper corner, where the wall meets the ceiling above the foot of my bed, a thumb-sized clump of gray-white webbing has appeared overnight. It looks almost disappointingly ordinary, like a spider got ambitious. The problem is ordinary spiders don’t survive long here, and ordinary webs don’t pulse when you stop looking directly at them.

I keep thinking I should feel proud of myself for making it this far. I don’t. Mostly I feel the pain in my back as I put my feet on the floor.

Outside my room I can hear everyone starting to gather for the trek to the workshops. Going with them would be safer, but I still don’t fit in. And I’m not sure I can handle one more accusation.

I’m ahead of my mana budget for graduation, but that assumes everything goes as planned. Nothing here ever does. I know climbing the stairs alone is risky, but for whatever reason I earn more mana doing it than others claim to.

Then there’s the nest.

At some point I’m going to have to deal with it. It isn’t going away on its own.

1. Enter the hall and join everyone else.

2. Turn right and head up the stairs alone.

3. Turn left and get to the workshop early.

4. Poke at the nest and figure out what I’m dealing with.

I don't think I've painted someone stretching their eye or face with their hands before. As soon as I saw this reference I knew I had to try.

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